This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Saturday: Today is the day we celebrate the anniversary of something new – a new classification of celestial objects. Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres [pronounced sear’-ease], the first of what are now called “asteroids”, on January 1, 1801. Ceres is the largest asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. At first, Piazzi thought it was a star that didn’t show up on his charts. But, he noted its position changed with respect to the background stars from night to night. This indicated to him that it had to be orbiting the Sun. In August of 2006, Ceres got promoted to the status of “dwarf planet” by the International Astronomical Union.

Has it been tough to wake up this past week? It should have been because the sunrise has been getting a little later since summer started. I know. I know. December 22 was the shortest day of the year. But, because the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical and not circular, the Earth does not travel at a constant speed. It moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away. This leads to the latest sunrise occurring in early January, tomorrow for 2011, and the earliest sunset occurring in early December, not on the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year. On the first day of winter, however, the interval between sunrise and sunset is the shortest.

Sunday: Today’s weather forecast: showers. Meteor showers, that is. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks over the next two nights. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. That makes this shower mysterious because there isn’t any constellation with this name now. The shower was named after Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation found in some early 19th century star atlases. These meteors appear to come from a point in the modern constellation Draco the dragon. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeast horizon at 1 a.m. In good years, careful observers can spot about 100 meteors per hour. Fortunately, 2011 is going to be a good year because the moon will be new during the peak nights meaning less ambient light to obscure the dimmer meteors. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Most meteors are associated with the path of a comet. This shower consists of the debris from an asteroid discovered in 2003. Keeping with the comet-origin paradigm, astronomers think the asteroid is actually an “extinct” comet, a comet that lost all of its ice as it passed by the Sun during its many orbits.

Monday: If the Sun looks big today, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The Earth is at perihelion at about 11 a.m. If you dig out your Greek language textbook, you’ll see that peri- means “in close proximity” and helios means “Sun”. So, perihelion is when an object is closest to the Sun in its orbit, about 1.5 million miles closer than its average distance of 93 million miles. Since it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere now, the seasonal temperature changes must not be caused by the Earth getting farther from and closer to the Sun. Otherwise, we’d have summer when the Earth is closest to the Sun. The seasons are caused by the angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth. In the winter, sunlight hits the Earth at a very low angle, an angle far from perpendicular or straight up and down. This means that a given “bundle” of sunlight is spread out over a large area and does not warm the surface as much as the same bundle in the summer.

Tuesday: Jupiter is about three fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m.

Wednesday: As a follow-up to the 1982 hit “Southern Cross”, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Palmquist are working on this: “When you see the Northern Cross for the first time. You’ll understand now why swans fly this way”. The Northern Cross, also known as Cygnus the swan, appears to standing up on the northwest horizon at 8 p.m. The bottom of the cross about one fist and the bright star Deneb at the top of the cross is three fists above the northwest horizon.

Thursday: The holidays are family time. Now that the time you have spent with your human family is over, spend some time with your solar system family. This year begins the International Year of the Solar System. Nearly each month has a different theme. The theme for January is “A Family Affair”. Your solar system family has some great 3-D pictures posted at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slideshows/index.cfm?id=22&page=1. They’re a lot better than the pictures of your aunt’s dog and that stupid doggy sweater he wears.

Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon and Venus is nearly two fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Saturday: Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw Jupiter being eclipsed by the Moon in the east and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2, Bruce Palmquist version, informed by Michael Molnar). There are many theories as to the physical explanation of the Star of Bethlehem, the celestial object that guided the wise men to the location of Jesus. Some people think it was a recurring nova, a star that explodes again and again. Some think it was a close alignment of bright planets. Some think it was a miracle that requires no physical explanation. In 1991, astronomer Michael Molnar bought an ancient Roman Empire coin that depicted a ram looking back at a star. Aries the ram was a symbol for Judea, the birthplace of Jesus. The Magi, or “wise men”, who visited the baby Jesus practiced astrology and would have been looking in that region of the sky for the king prophesied in the Old Testament. Molnar, a modern day wise person, used sky simulation software to model the positions of planets and the Moon in the region of Aries. According to his model, Jupiter was eclipsed, or blocked, by the Moon on the morning of April 17, 6 BC. Molnar’s theory is supported by a book written by the astrologer of Constantine the Great in 334 AD. The book describes an eclipse of Jupiter in Aries and notes a man of divine nature born during this time. See http://www.eclipse.net/~molnar/ for more information.
Aries and Jupiter make an appearance in the Christmas sky tonight. At 7 p.m., the dim constellation Aries is about six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon and Jupiter is three and a half fists above the southwest horizon.

Sunday: Columbia the dove, representing the bird Noah sent out to look for dry land as the flood waters receded, is perched just above the ridge south of Ellensburg. Its brightest star Phact is about one fist above due south at 11 p.m.

Monday: The rapper Lil Bow Wow, now known by his adult name, Bow Wow, has a new album coming out next year. The sky has its own lil bow wow coming out every night this winter. Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is about three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.

Tuesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be detected from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is six and a half fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Are you celebrating New Year Eve eve by staying up late? If so, check out the ringed planet Saturn, one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 2 a.m.

Thursday: Venus is about a fist to the left of the crescent moon at 6 a.m.

Friday: Forget about that big bright ball in Times Square. You can mark the start of the new year with one of the sky’s own big bright balls. That perennial favorite New Year’s Day marker, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises to its highest point in the sky a little after midnight on January 1. Thus, when Sirius starts to “fall”, the new year has begun. Look for Sirius about two and a half fists above due south at midnight.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

This week, we’ll all be reminded of the lyrics of the song Bonnie Tyler almost sang, Total Eclipse of the Moon. “Turn around. Twice a year I move into the shadow of Terra and I become very dark. Turn around. Five years out of ten I get a little bit tired of becoming red like blood from a shark.”

Saturday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 6 p.m. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time.

Sunday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, is about a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.

Monday: Tonight’s moon is full. Ho hum. A full moon happens every month. But, this month, the moon is very close to being in the same plane as the Earth and Sun. Not ho hum. That means there will be a lunar eclipse tonight. Even less ho hum. It will be a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses are not as obvious as total solar eclipses because light still reaches the Moon even when it is completely blocked by the earth. That is because the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens and bends rays of light that would normally miss the moon towards the moon. That doesn’t mean the moon looks the same during a total lunar eclipse as it does during a normal full moon.
Sunlight is white. White light is the sum of all of the colors in the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Our atmosphere scatters the blue component of the Sun’s white light. That is why our sky is blue. (If our atmosphere consisted of different gasses, we would likely have a different colored sky.) When the Sun or moon is near the horizon, the light passes through a lot of the atmosphere meaning a lot of the blue light is scattered and the Sun or moon looks redder than when it is high in the sky. During a total lunar eclipse, sunlight passes through a large slice of the Earth’s atmosphere. The remaining light that reaches the moon is reddish. Thus, the moon looks red during a total lunar eclipse.
From our perspective in central Washington, the moon will begin the partial eclipse stage at 10:32 p.m. The moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. At 11:40 p.m., the moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 12:52 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 2:00 a.m. After that, the moon will look white just like a normal full moon. Thus, during the entire eclipse, the moon looks white, then black, then red all over. For more information, go to NASA’s eclipse website at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html.

Tuesday: At 3:43 p.m., the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky with respect to the background stars. This point is called the Winter Solstice. During the day that the Sun reaches this point, your noon time shadow is longer than any other day of the year. Also, the Sun spends less time in the sky on the day of the Winter Solstice than any other day making this the shortest day of the year. Even though it is the shortest day of the year, it is not the day with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. The latest sunrise is during the first week in January and the earliest sunset is during the second week in December. The Sun is at its southernmost point with respect to the background stars on the day of the winter solstice. This means the Sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon on that day. But, the Sun rise and set time depends on more than its apparent vertical motion. It also depends on where the Sun is on the analemma, that skinny figure-8 you see on globes and world maps. During the second week in December, the Sun is not quite to the bottom of the analemma. But, it is on the first part of the analemma to go below the horizon. During the first week in January, it is on the last part of the analemma to rise above the horizon. For more information on this, go to http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/dark-days.

Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time. Yes, I know I wrote this about Jupiter. Venus is brighter than Jupiter but it is not above the horizon in the evening this month.

Thursday: I know you’re staying up late to train yourself to wait up for Santa. So look out a south-facing window at 1 a.m. and see Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as high as it ever gets in the sky. It is two and a half fists above sue south.

Friday: What would that special someone want to see on the back of Santa’s sleigh when she gets up early Christmas morning to eat one of Santa’s cookies? A fruit cake? No. A barbell? Maybe to work off the fruitcake. A subscription to The Daily Record? Of course. But what she really wants is a ring. And if she looks out a south-facing window, she’ll see her ring. Saturn the ringed planet, that is. Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon at 6:30 a.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Saturday: Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies on a hill overlooking Vantage, Washington. And the sky cuts loose three horses of its own: Pegasus, the flying horse; Equueus, the little horse; and Monoceros, the unicorn. The Great Square of Pegasus is easiest to find. The center of the square is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at 8 p.m. Equueus is about two fists to the right of the Moon and Monoceros is just rising due east.

Sunday: Jupiter is four fists above the south horizon at 7 p.m.

Monday: The Geminid meteor shower peaks at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning but will remain highly active throughout the night. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Gemini the twins. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at 9 p.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain near the bright star Castor, the right hand star of the “twin” stars Pollux and Castor. This shower is typically one of the best ones of the year producing bright, medium speed meteors with up to 80 meteors per hour near the peak. The Moon will have set for most of the night so the sky will be very dark meaning good viewing conditions. Yahoo! News is calling this the best meteor shower of 2010.
Most meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the orbital trail of a comet. The broken off comet fragments collide with the earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Astronomers had searched for a comet source for this shower since 1862 when the shower was first observed. Finally, in 1983, astronomers discovered the object that created the fragments that cause the meteor shower. To their surprise, it was a dark, rock that looked like an asteroid, not a shiny icy comet. Astronomers named this object Asteroid 3200 Phaethon. But, they still don’t know if it an asteroid or if it is a comet with all of its ice sublimated away by many close passes by the Sun. For more information about 3200 Phaethon, go to http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=2344.

Tuesday: On these cold mornings, it is difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But, are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all of the over achievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/71/howfast.html.

Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. Even though the dawn sky is well lit, Venus is still bright enough to be seen. Some people call Venus the “morning star”. I call it the “late sleepers’ planet”.

Thursday: When you were growing up, you may have heard “Don’t make waves.” The red supergiant star Betelgeuse must not have listened. According to data from the Japanese Akari satellite, Betelgeuse creates a shockwave as it moves through the surrounding cloud of gas and dust. If viewed through a telescope sensitive to infrared radiation, this shockwave would appear to be the size of the full Moon as seen from Earth. Betelgeuse is four fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m.

Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. If you don’t want to get up so early, stay up until 2 a.m. and look for Saturn less than a fist above the east horizon.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Saturday: The earliest sunset of the year occurs this week, about 4:17 p.m. This seems odd because the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, isn’t for about two more weeks. The Sun is at its southernmost point with respect to the background stars on the day of the winter solstice. This means the Sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon on that day. But, the Sun rise and set time depends on more than its apparent vertical motion. It also depends on where the Sun is on the analemma, that skinny figure-8 you see on globes and world maps. During the second week in December, the Sun is not quite to the bottom of the analemma. But, it is on the leading edge of the analemma, the first section to go below the horizon.

Sunday: Tonight’s Moon is new. Don’t bother looking for it. The new moon is the phase where the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. Hence the side of the Moon facing Earth is not receiving any sunlight and cannot be seen.

Monday: The young crescent Moon helps mark the location of two planets very low in the southwest sky right after sunset. The Moon is just above the southwest horizon at 4:45 p.m. Mars is about a pinky width to the lower right of the Moon and Mercury is about a half a fist to the upper left of the Moon.

Tuesday: “Hey baby! What’s your sign?”
“Ophiuchus, of course”
The Sun is in the same part of the sky as the stars of Ophiuchus from about November 29 to December 17. This is what astrologers mean when they say the Sun is “in” a constellation. Thus, if you were born between these dates, you should be an Ophiuchus. The fact that the horoscopes never list Ophiuchus is a major flaw of astrology. Astrology says that some of our characteristics are based on the location of the Sun at our birth. How can astrologers leave out three weeks from their system? That is like a scientist saying she can explain the results of her experiment every month of the year except early December. Ophiuchus was a mythical healer who was a forerunner to Hippocrates. According to myth, he could raise people from the dead. Maybe that is why he is ignored by astrology. Raising people from the dead is much less impressive than giving spot-on advice such as “Today is a good day to watch your finances.”
The bright stars of Ophiuchus rise just before the Sun. Rasalhague (pronounced Ras’-al-hay’-gwee), the brightest star, is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Wednesday: Venus is about two fists and Saturn is about three and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Thursday: When Galileo aimed his telescope towards the sky, he knew of only one Sun-like star: the Sun. By the early twentieth century, Annie Jump Cannon, Williamina Fleming and others had developed a scheme for classifying stars so astronomers could identify other Sun-like stars. But it wasn’t until the last few years that astronomers have discovered planets around some of those Sun -like stars. Some astronomers estimate that one out of every four stars like our Sun may be orbited by Earth-like planets. Of course, the definition of Earth-like typically means a rocky planet about the mass and radius of the Earth. So don’t start saving up for that interstellar vacation yet. But in the next few years, satellites such as Kepler will start imaging Earth-like planets. Not long after that, astronomers will be able to study the atmospheres of those planets and look for clues that the planet might have life. For more information about discovering new worlds, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_dec.htm.

Friday: Jupiter is four fists above the south horizon at 6 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Saturday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at a little after 7:00 p.m.

Sunday: This morning’s last quarter moon is in the constellation Sextans the sextant. Sextans is a dim constellation below the constellation Leo that was originated by Johannes Hevelius in 1687. Hevelius continued to use a sextant for studying the sky long after telescopes were available making him the last major astronomer to do major work without a telescope.

Monday: Have you been shopping all weekend? Do you need an evening sky break? You deserve a big reward so make it a double. A Double Cluster, that is. The Double Cluster, also known as h and Chi Persei, consists of two young open star clusters in the constellation Perseus. Of course, young is a relative term as these clusters are about 13 million years old. Each cluster is spread out over an area about the same size as the full moon. To the naked eye, the Double Cluster shines with a steady, fuzzy glow. Binoculars resolve dozens of individual stars in the clusters. The Double Cluster is six and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 7 p.m., about a fist below the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia.

Tuesday: Are you cold? Tired of the blowing snow? Then get up this morning and look at Saturn, the bright point of light three fists above the southeast horizon. Saturn will not make you warmer. But thinking about its ice moon Enceladus might. Enceladus has numerous geysers that spew ice particles with an aggressiveness that makes the Ellensburg wind feel wimpy – up to 1000 miles per hour. To learn more about Enceladus and its geysers, go to http://www.astronomy.com/en/sitecore/content/Home/News-Observing/News/2008/02/Enceladus%20geyser%20findings.aspx. If you have a small telescope, you may be able to see Enceladus nearly touching the rings of Saturn this morning.

Wednesday: Do you like to look in a nursery and say “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl”? Not me. I say, “it’s a star”. Of course, I like looking into a stellar nursery – a star forming region such as the Orion Nebula in the middle of Orion’s sword holder. The Orion Nebula looks like a fuzzy patch to the naked eye. Binoculars reveal a nebula, or region of gas and dust, that is 30 light years across. The center of the nebula contains four hot “baby” stars called the Trapezium. These hot stars emit the ultraviolet radiation that causes the Nebula’s gas to glow. The Orion Nebula is three fists above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. For more information about the Orion Nebula, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/observe_dec.htm.

Thursday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is more than one fist above due southeast at 11 p.m.

Friday: Venus is nearly two fists above the southeast horizon at 6 a.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Saturday: The Nature of Night takes place today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Black Hall on the CWU campus. There will be planetarium shows, fun nature at night experiments, storytelling, telescopes, and much more. The event is free. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various community sponsors work together to put on this event.

Sunday: Well, it is late November. It is time to set the beaver traps before the swamps freeze so you have a supply of warm winter furs. You must be getting ready to do that because the November full moon is known as the full beaver moon. Or maybe you shop for winter coats at a fine Ellensburg business (shop local). If that is the case, you may think the name full beaver moon came about because the beavers, themselves, are preparing for winter. Setting their human traps for…. I guess I shouldn’t continue that thought. Look for an open star cluster called the Pleiades is a half a fist to the upper right of the full beaver moon at 8 p.m.

Monday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the south horizon at 8 p.m.

Tuesday: Saturn is three fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m. The much brighter Venus is almost two fists above the southeast horizon. Spica is less than a half a fist to the upper right of Venus.

Wednesday: Most constellations don’t look like the object their name refers to. Most constellations don’t have such a simple to object to emulate as Triangulum. As you probably guessed, Triangulum is shaped like a princess. Wait…. Just a second…. I read my book wrong. Triangulum is shaped like a thin isosceles triangle. Mothallah is the only named star in the constellation. In Latin it is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is seven fists above the south horizon at 9 p.m. It is pointing down and to the right with Mothallah being the southernmost star at this time of night. The Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with binoculars about a half a fist to the right of Mothallah.

Thursday: Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. But, probably not as much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. According to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her in order to punish her family. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know what to do. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend, the great warrior Perseus. Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster’s neck and killed it. This was the first time in recorded history that a set of parents actually welcomed an uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus is about five fists above the east-northeast horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the east horizon at 7 p.m.

Friday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets orbiting it. So far, all of its planets are giant planets like Jupiter. But, the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but certainly not its planets, is barely visible straight overhead at 9 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. (No, that is not a euphemism for death.) They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song was rated the 20th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low in my opinion.

Sunday: Jupiter is three and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 9 p.m.

Monday: Deneb Kaitos, the "tail of the whale," swims through the southern sky tonight (and many other nights, of course). The moderately bright orange star forms the tail of Cetus, the whale. At 9 p.m., it is three and a half fists above the south horizon, about a fist to the left of the much brighter Jupiter.

Tuesday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. These meteors appear to come from a point in Leo the lion. This point is about one fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night and into the morning as it will remain about one fist above the bright star Regulus. Even if the weather cooperates, this will not be a great night to see a lot of meteors because the sky will be illuminated by the waxing gibbous moon. The Leonid meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle around January 1, 1866. Go to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021116.html to see a picture of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. This year’s shower is expected to be much more active than usual with up to 500 meteors per hour visible throughout the night. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Even if there are only a couple dozen meteors visible per hour, you’ll want to enjoy it.

Wednesday: While your family is lining up at 6 a.m. this morning to use the shower, two planets and a bright star are lining up in the southeast sky. Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is one fist above the southeast horizon. The star Spica is slightly to the upper right of Venus and Saturn is one and a half fists above Venus.

Thursday: Have you even seen a Black Hole? Neither have scientists. But they have seen the effects of a Black Hole. Black holes have a strong gravitational influence on anything that passes close to them, including light. Cygnus X-1, the first Black Hole candidate ever discovered, is four and a half fists above the west horizon, in the middle of the neck of Cygnus the swan.

Friday: I am guessing that some of you don’t like the line of reasoning from Thursday: that seeing the effects of a Black Hole is good enough to claim there are Black Holes. You have never seen the wind. But, you have seen the effects of the wind. And no Chicago resident doubts the existence of the wind.

Tomorrow, November 20, the Nature of Night takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Black Hall on the CWU campus. There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, storytelling, cookies and much more. The event is free. Call 963-2929 for more information. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various community sponsors work together to put on this event. When you are there, ask about the safe way to look at the Sun. Even though this is called Nature of Night, without day, there is no night. And without Gladys Knight, there are no Pipps.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Saturday: Don’t forget to “fall back” tonight. Before you fall back on to your bed, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings ends early Sunday morning at 2 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching at night because the Sun will set one hour earlier. Ben Franklin proposed the idea of “saving daylight” by adjusting our clocks way back in 1784. Daylight savings time was first utilized during World War I as a way to save electricity. After the war, it was abandoned. It was reintroduced during World War II on a year-round basis. From 1945 to 1966, some areas implemented daylight savings and some did not. But, it was not implemented with any uniformity as to when it should start and stop. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 codified the daylight savings rules.

Sunday: The North Taurid meteor shower peaks for the next few late nights and early mornings with the night of the 12th being the peak of the peak. This is not a prominent shower but it occasionally produces a couple of bright “fireballs”, larger rocks that take a few seconds to burn up in the atmosphere. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull. This point is nearly six fists above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain midway between the bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran) and the open star cluster, the Pleiades. If you miss the peak this week, don’t worry. Taurid meteor showers result in a slight increase on meteor activity from mid-October to the beginning of December.

Monday: Jupiter is four fists above due south at 8:30 p.m.

Tuesday: Did you look up Caroline Herschel and Clyde Tombaugh based on last week’s Halloween costume suggestion? Caroline Herschel was an 18th and 19th century astronomer who discovered three nebula and eight comets. Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. They make much better, and more realistic, heroes than Lady Gaga, Ironman, and Christine O’Donnell.

Wednesday: Saturn is two fists above the east-southeast horizon at 6 a.m.

Thursday: We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. And a happy Thursday. Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397. What does this have to astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is halfway between an equinox and a solstice.

Friday: The constellation Lepus the hare is right under the feet of Orion. At 11 p.m., the middle of the hare is one fist above the southeast horizon. Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion, is just above the head of the hare.

Wait a minute. We got all the way to the end of the week with no Moon phase summary? How can that be? There are 29.5 days between the same Moon phase in two different cycles. That means about 7.5 days between the phases new, first quarter, full and last quarter. Since a week is seven days, there are some weeks in which none of the main phases occur. This week, the Moon was always in the waxing crescent phase.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Saturday: Dead October flowers lead to November meteor showers. While the Lyonid meteor shower is the big name of the month, the one or two bright fireballs per hour you can see during the typical Southern Taurid meteor shower may make it worth your while to say up. This shower reaches a maximum over the next few nights with a peak on November 5th and 6th. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull. This point is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist to the right of the Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. These rocks are broken off parts of Comet 2P/Encke.

Sunday: Halloween. The pumpkins. The candy. The children going door-to-door dressed up as their favorite astronomers Caroline Herschel and Clyde Tombaugh. At least they should because Halloween is, in part, an astronomical holiday. Halloween is a “cross-quarter date”, a day approximately midway between an equinox and a solstice. Historically, the Celts of the British Isles used cross-quarter dates as the beginnings of seasons. For the Celts, winter began with Halloween. So when all those little Herschels and Tombaughs come to your door, honor the Celts and give them a wintry treat.

Monday: What sucks? Children with a lollipop. People with a lemon slice in their mouth. Your least favorite sports team. What doesn’t suck? Black holes. They are so massive; they PULL everything into them that gets too close, even light. Come to the CWU Astronomy Club’s First Monday Astronomy Event, learn Black Hole Survival and observe the night sky from 8:00 to 10:00 at Lind Hall 215. Lind Hall is on the corner of Chestnut Street and University Way. There is ample close free parking near Lind Hall at this time of night.

Tuesday: Happy Celtic New Year! Many historians think that this day, known for the festival of Samhain, was the ancient Celtic new year’s day. Samhain, Old Irish for “summer’s end”, was a harvest festival that may have contributed to some of the customs of our current “holiday” of Halloween.

Wednesday: Jupiter is nearly four fists above the south horizon at 9 p.m.

Thursday: The weather may be getting cold. But, NASA still has hot astronomy topics for each month. November’s topic is very hot. Starting at a few thousand degrees Celsius for most of their productive lives and moving on to 100,000 degrees Celsius for new white dwarf stars, stars can definitely heat up a room. (Not as much as an episode of CSI with all of those good looking forensic scientists but close.) Not all stars start at the same temperature or die the same way. The temperature of a star for most of its productive life can tell an astronomer a lot about how the star was formed and how it will end up. Four hundred years ago, Galileo would have never dreamed that the descendants of his telescope would see such a variety of stars, objects that many uninformed people still call little points of white light. For more information about the lives of stars, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_nov.htm.

Friday: Morning time is planet viewing time. At 7 a.m., Saturn is two fists and Venus is a half a fist above the southeast horizon.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Saturday: “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.” Constellations can be considered neighborhoods in the nighttime sky. But, the stars in those constellations are not necessarily neighbors in real life. For example, the bright stars in the constellation Cassiopeia range from 19 to over 10,000 light years away from Earth. One constellation that consists of real neighbors is Ursa Major. Or, more specifically, the Big Dipper. Five stars in the Big Dipper are all moving in the same direction in space, are about the same age and are all about 80 light years from Earth. “Please won’t you be my neighbor?” Skat, the third brightest star in the constellation Aquarius is a neighbor to these five Big Dipper stars, all of which are about 30 light years from each other. They are thought to have originated in the same nebula about 500 million years ago. Just like human children do, these child stars are slowly moving away from home. Skat is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10 p.m. The much brighter Fomalhaut is a fist and a half below Skat. And, it’s not fun being below Skat.

Sunday: Jupiter is three fists above the southeast horizon at 8 p.m.

Monday: The Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a Portal to the Universe. This portal, available not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/, is a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts.

Tuesday: Saturn is a little less than a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Wednesday: A few stars appear to be a color other than white to the naked eye. The reddish Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and the bluish Vega in the constellation Lyra come to mind. But if you look with binoculars, the star Mu Cephei appears to be more vividly colored than either of these - a surprisingly deep red. This star, named the Garnet star by the astronomer William Herschel, is eight fists above the north horizon, very close to being straight overhead, at 8 p.m. It is a red supergiant star that varies in brightness by about a factor of five over a two-year period. If our Sun were replaced by Mu Cephei, it would fill up the solar system out to halfway between Jupiter and Saturn.

Thursday: Pollux is about a fist to the upper left of the Moon at midnight. Castor, the Gemini “twin” of Pollux, is right above it at this time.

Friday: This weekend is Halloween so make sure you loead up on peanut clusters, almond clusters, and open star clusters. That last one will be easy (and cheap, actually free) because two of the most prominent open star clusters in the sky are easily visible in the autumn sky. The sideways V-shaped Hyades Cluster is two fists above due east at 10 p.m. Containing over 300 stars, the Hyades cluster is about 150 light years away and 625 million years old. The Pleiades Cluster, a little more than three fists above due east, is larger at over 1000 stars and younger. Compared to our 5 billion year old Sun, the 100 million year age of the Pleaides is infant-like.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Saturday: Did you say “good bye” last week? Mars is in the process of disappearing into the glare of the setting Sun so say “good night Mars” soon. Look a little less than one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon. You will probably need binoculars to pick it out of the bright twilight sky.

Sunday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good. Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.

Monday: Saturn is a half a fist above the east horizon at 7:30 a.m.

Tuesday: What time is tea time? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the south-southwest horizon by 8 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.

Wednesday: Jupiter, the largest and usually the second brightest of the planets, was discovered as soon as people started looking up at the night sky. It probably could have been discovered by the trilobites but the fossil record shows they simply did not care for astronomy. But it was not until 1610 that Galileo discovered the four largest Moons of Jupiter. These moons can be seen with steady binoculars or a small telescope. Jupiter is four fists above due south at 10:30 p.m. From left to right in your binoculars, you’ll see Ganymede, Io, Jupiter, Europa, and Callisto. A telescope will likely flip the field of view. For more information about the location of Jupiter’s four largest moons at any day and time, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307071.html.

Thursday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks this tonight into early tomorrow morning. This is not a meteor shower that results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night. However, the chance of seeing meteors this year is less than usual because the nearly full Moon will be out all night. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November.

Friday: Tonight’s full moon is in the constellation Pisces the fish. Some years, the October full moon is known as the harvest moon because its rising time is fairly constant for a few days, giving farmers more time to harvest their crops. This year, the harvest moon was the first day of autumn, nearly as early as it has ever been.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Saturday: Mars is in the process of disappearing into the glare of the setting Sun so tonight is a good night to say “good night Mars”. Look a little less than one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon, about a half a fist to the upper right of the crescent Moon. You will probably need binoculars to pick it out of the bright twilight sky.

Sunday: Halley's Comet returns this month! In the form of little pieces of its tail, that is. The Orionid meteor shower consists of the earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks on the morning of October 21 but produces meteors from now until early November. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. As you Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.

Monday: “She loves Jup yeah, yeah, yeah. And with a love like that, you know Jup should be glad.” In 1963, The Beatles released the song “She Loves Jup” to celebrate Jupiter being exceptionally bright. However, when they test marketed it, the astronomy reference was not understood by most people. So they did a hasty rewrite to “She Loves You” and it became a smash hit. This year, Jupiter is a smash hit in the night sky, being brighter than any time since 1963. Jupiter is three fists above the southeast horizon at 9 a.m.

Tuesday: Since Halloween is coming up, the stores are filled with bags of candy clusters. Instead, take time to look at a star cluster. The Hyades cluster is an open star cluster that represents the V-shaped face of Taurus the bull. It is one of the biggest and nearest star clusters with about 200 stars 150 light years away. The Hyades cluster was the first cluster to be the subject of detailed motion studies. These studies allowed astronomers to pinpoint the distance to the Hyades and provide important information about the scale of the universe. Aldebaran, nearly two fists above due east horizon at 11 p.m., is a foreground star and not a part of the Hyades cluster.

Wednesday: Arcturus is one fist above the west-northwest horizon at 8 p.m.

Thursday: Tonight’s first quarter Moon is in the constellation Sagittarius the archer. It is two fists above due south at 7 p.m.

Friday: Saturn has finally moved out from the glare of the Sun. It is less than a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m. Right above Saturn is a kite-shaped set of stars that makes up part of the constellation Virgo. Near the top of the “kite”, one fist above Saturn is the star Zavijava. The bending of light from Zavijava by the Sun provided early experimental evidence for Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Einstein predicted that objects such as the Sun were so massive that they could noticeably bend light from a star. During a total solar eclipse in 1922, Zavijava was almost directly behind the Sun such that bits light would have to pass near the Sun on its way to the Earth. Astronomers measured its position on that day to be slightly different from its position on star charts meaning its light had been slightly deflected by the Sun. This morning the triangle is a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Saturday: Mnemonics are helpful for remembering astronomy facts. (Similarly, “Johnny Mnemonic”, the 1995 cyberpunk film, was helpful in getting Keanu Reeves’ career going.) After all, school children all around the country are learning the order of the planets by remembering, “My very excellent mother just served us nine….” Oops, I guess that one needs updating. Well, here’s one that will not need updating for nearly 100,000 years: the order of the stars in the Big Dipper. Because the nighttime stars are so far away from us, their actual motion through the sky, called their “proper motion” is not noticeable over even thousands of years. That is why the constellations have remained the same since ancient times. But two stars in the Big Dipper have a proper motion large enough such than in 100,000 years, the stars will no longer make a dipper shape. Until then, you can remember the names of the seven dipper stars in order from handle to cup by remembering “morning, morning, evening, death” or “amampmd”. The stars are Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phad, Merek, and Duhbe. Morning, morning, evening, death is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the north horizon at 11 p.m.

Sunday: Astronomers, philosophers, and smart children have been contemplating the fate of the universe for centuries. Galileo, arguably the first modern astronomer, did not start that endeavor. But by turning his telescope toward the night sky, he opened a new source of evidence for determining that fate. To honor Galileo’s contribution to this question, the International year of Astronomy Hot Topic for October is “What is the fate of the universe?”. For more information, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_oct.htm.

Monday: For the first time in months, the evening sky has only one naked eye planet. But, what a planet it is. Jupiter, the king of planets, is three fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m. But don’t sit at home and look at it alone. Go to the CWU Astronomy Club’s First Monday Astronomy Event from 8:00 to 10:00 pm. We will meet in Lind Hall, room 215 for a brief introduction to the night sky. There will be numerous telescopes in use to view Jupiter and other interesting celestial objects. Dress warm. If the sky is overcast, come anyway to hear a presentation about the Solar System. Lind Hall is on the corner of Chestnut Street and University Way. There is ample close free parking near Lind Hall at this time of night.

Tuesday: Mercury is less than a half a fist above due east at 6:30 a.m.

Wednesday: Fomalhaut, the southernmost of the bright stars, is a little more than a fist above the south horizon at 10:30. It is in the constellation Piscis Austrinus or the southern fish.

Thursday: The Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow night. The meteors appear to come from a point in the head of Draco, the dragon constellation. This point is about five fists above the northwest horizon at 10 p.m. tonight. This point remains near the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco throughout the night. Typically, this is a minor shower. However, Draconid meteors are slow moving which means you will have a easy time differentiating true Draconid meteors, from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, from stray grains of dust that happen to enter the Earth’s atmosphere near where we see the constellation Draco. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.

Friday: The bright star Arcturus is about two fists above the west horizon at 8 p.m. Some people may mistake it for a planet because it is bright and it is low in the western sky near sunset. But, you are not “some people”…. You are the one person who actually reads this column.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Saturday: “You know Aries and Cancer and Draco and Libra. Leo and Pisces and Virgo and Hydra. But, do you recall, the pointiest asterism of all? Triangulum, the three sided asterism, had a very pointy edge….” Sorry. Some stores have started putting up their Christmas decorations and that has put me in the mood to modify some Christmas songs. Anyway, Triangulum is a small constellation between the more prominent Andromeda and Aries. Its main feature is a skinny triangle oriented parallel to and nearly four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 10 p.m.

Sunday: Venus will really be negative for the next few nights. But, don’t feel bad for Venus. It is okay for a celestial object to be negative as long as we are referring only to its magnitude. The ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus developed a system for rating the apparent brightness of stars and planets in which lower numbers refer to brighter stars and planets. In his initial scheme, all points of light in the night sky were classified from first magnitude, meaning bright, to sixth magnitude, meaning very dim. Modern day astronomers have made this scale more quantitative. Tonight and tomorrow, Venus has a magnitude, or apparent brightness rating, of -4.6. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, has a brightness rating of -1.5. Venus will barely be visible right after sunset very low in the southwest sky. Sirius is two and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6 a.m.

Monday: Did you time the exact length of the day and night last Wednesday on the first day of autumn? They were not equal in duration. Many people think that the day and night are the same duration on the autumnal equinox. The day is a little longer than the night for two reasons. First, the Sun is an extended object so even when the middle part has set, the upper half is still above the horizon lighting the sky. The second, and more influential reason, is that the atmosphere acts like a lens, bending light from the Sun above the horizon when the Sun is really still below the horizon. Day and night are closest in duration today.

Tuesday: Sometimes you find spare change in a chair or an old candy bar in your backpack. Last month, astronomers announced that they found 14 trans-Neptunian objects in old Hubble telescope data. While trans-Neptunian objects will not help you satisfy your hunger, they offer astronomers clues to the origin of the solar system. Pluto is the most well-known trans-Neptunian object. For more information, go to http://www.universetoday.com/73501/astronomers-find-14-new-trans-neptunian-objects-hiding-in-hubble-data/.

Wednesday: The International Year of Astronomy (IYA) is winding down. But the size of the objects being featured is not getting any smaller. This month’s Go Observe is the Andromeda Galaxy. On Saturday, I had you look for Triangulum. About one fist above Triangulum is a star twice as bright as the brightest star in Triangulum. From that star, hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one fourth as bright as the bright star you just found. Less than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy oval patch of light called the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars. It consists of about 400 billion stars and is 2.2 million light years away. For more information about the Andromeda Galaxy, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/observe_oct.htm.

Thursday: Jupiter is three fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m.

Friday: Astronomers, philosophers, and smart children have been contemplating the fate of the universe for centuries. Galileo did not start that trend. But by turning his telescope toward the night sky, he opened a new source of evidence for determining that fate. To honor Galileo’s contribution to this question, the IYA Hot Topic for October is “What is the fate of the universe?”. For more information, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_oct.htm.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Saturday: Last Sunday, I gave you a very brief overview of how to use the Big Dipper as a clock. But, my explanation was helpful only for a late evening in the autumn or spring. Some of you go out other times of the year and need a way to tell time then. First, find the two stars at the far end of the Big Dipper cup, the stars that do not touch the handle. Draw an imaginary line segment starting at the North Star and passing through the two Big Dipper cup stars. Now, draw a big circle around the North Star. Your circle is a 24-hour clock. Number the circle from 0 hours at the top, counterclockwise to 12 hours at the bottom of the circle, and back up to 24 hours at the top. (O hours and 24 hours are the same on this clock because the day is 24 hours long.) The hour number on the big circle closest to where your imaginary line intersects this circle is called your raw time. Due to the location of the Big Dipper compared to the rest of the stars, the time nearest the intersection (the raw time) is correct for March 6. For any other night, subtract two times the number of months the current date is after March 6 from the raw time. For example, let’s say the imaginary line between the North Star and the Dipper stars is pointed to the right. That means the raw time is 18 hours or 6 p.m. If you made this observation on October 6, which is seven months after March 6, you would subtract two times seven or 14 hours from the raw time. Thus, the time for November 6 is 18 hours minus 14 hours or 4 hours. In other words, 4 a.m. Don’t forget to convert for daylight savings time if needed. For a more complete set of instructions, go to http://prdupl02.ynet.co.il/ForumFiles_2/24505461.pdf. There is a simple “star clock” template and instructions at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/letsgo/familyfun/Make_a_Star_Clock.html. Use this paper star clock whenever you watch is broken.

Sunday: Let me tell you the story of the ghostly white figure that rises early in the morning around Halloween. It appears to be a huge dim glow of white light that rises up from the east in the pre-dawn sky. No, I’m not writing about the ROTC student who has her first early morning physical training. I’m describing an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon. You need a clear sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light which will be visible for the next week or so. At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way.

Monday: Mercury is about a half a fist above the east horizon at 6 a.m.

Tuesday: Jupiter and Uranus are both in opposition tonight. No, that doesn’t mean they will disagree with everything you say. (You: “My, the sky is a pretty blue today.” Jupiter: “No, it’s a pretty yellow.” Uranus: “No, it’s a pretty red.”) Opposition means that a planet is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. An object is in opposition when it is due south 12 hours after the Sun. When an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the sky during the darkest time of the night. A planet in opposition shines brighter and appears larger in a telescope than any other night of its orbital cycle. Jupiter and Uranus are four fists above due south at 1 a.m. daylight savings time which is midnight standard time. If you’d rather not stay up so late,

Wednesday: At precisely 8:13 p.m. the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator and passes into the southern sky. The celestial equator is an imaginary line that divides the sky into a northern and southern half. When the Sun is in the southern half of the sky, it appears to take a shorter path from rising to setting. It also does not get as high in the sky at noon. This leads to shorter days and longer nights. Since the Sun crosses the celestial equator today, there is an instant when it is equally in the northern and southern sky, called the north and south celestial hemispheres. This so-called “equal night” is given by the Latin word equinox. Thus, today is known as the Autumnal Equinox. However, the day and night are not of equal duration today. The sun rises at 6:45 a.m. and sets at 7:03 p.m. Day and night are of equal duration next Monday.

Thursday: If Venus was not the brightest planet, you’d have no hope of seeing it with the naked eye for a few weeks. Look for it this week just above the southwest horizon within 45 minutes after sunset. By next week, it will be lost in the glare of the Sun.

Friday: Christmas Eve is three months away which means it is time to start making your wish list of gifts and recipients. Perhaps someone on your list (maybe you?) wants a telescope. The Sky & Telescope website has a good article on choosing your first telescope. Thanks to improved materials, you can buy a high quality starter scope for under $250. People never outgrow their first small telescope if it is well made. Even people who own giant telescopes or have their own observatory sometimes only want to spend five minutes setting up a telescope to show the neighbor kids Jupiter’s moons. Go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/equipment/basics/12511616.html for more information.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Saturday: Orion's the hunter. Searching for love in these lonely skies again. (Apologies to my favorite 1980s heavy metal band, Dokken.) Orion is such a prominent constellation, there are many myths about it. Nearly all Greco-Roman myths involve Orion getting killed. In one myth, he is accidentally killed by his girlfriend Diana, the goddess of the moon and of hunting. She felt so guilty that she repaid her debt by pulling him across the sky each night in her moon chariot. In another myth, Orion is killed by the bite of Scorpius, the scorpion. Obviously, Orion wants to avoid Scorpius in the night sky so he does not get bit again. That is one story of why Orion sets just as Scorpius rises.
Notice that both of these stories have an element of truth. Orion really does cross the sky each night. Orion really does set as Scorpius rises. Many people think a myth is simply a fake story. Instead, a myth is a story used to communicate a message. Myths always have some truth in them. Try to create your own myth about Orion as you see its belt three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 5:30 a.m. The bright reddish star four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon is Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The bright bluish star three fists above the south-southeast horizon is Rigel.

Sunday: You can use the position of the Big Dipper as a clock. During the late evening in the autumn, the Big Dipper cup is facing up to hold water. During the late evening in the spring, the Big Dipper cup is facing down to produce those spring showers. The water-holding Big Dipper is one fist above the north horizon at 11 p.m.

Monday: Science is Central! This week, faculty, staff, and students in the College of the Sciences at CWU will kick off the start of the academic year by hosting a series of evening science lectures and demonstrations geared for all ages. All events are taking place on the CWU Ellensburg campus and all are free. The week kicks off tonight with Bruce Palmquist and Michael Braunstein from the Department of Physics presenting a night sky lecture from 6:30 – 7:30 pm in Lind Hall room 215 followed by a guided tour of the night sky with several telescopes. Check http://www.cwu.edu/~web/cwu_news/News.php?ArticleID=2760 for information about events for the rest of the week.

Tuesday: Tonight’s first quarter Moon is in the constellation Ophiuchus (pronounced O-fee-u’-kus) the serpent-bearer. The Sun actually spends more days in line with Ophiuchus than with Scorpius the scorpion making Ophiuchus the thirteenth Zodiac constellation.

Wednesday: Astronomy is a field of science where amateurs can make a significant contribution. Amateur astronomer John Dobson is such a person. He developed a way to make the low-cost, easy-to-use, large aperture telescopes that millions of sky watchers around the world use to study and enjoy the nighttime sky. These devises, called Dobsonian telescopes by everyone but Dobson himself, are the best entry-level telescopes. John Dobson turns 95 years old today.

Thursday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m. It is the brightest point of light in the sky at that time and very easy to see. The planet Uranus typically is not easy to find. But this week and next, Uranus is right above Jupiter in the sky. They are less than a pinky width apart in the sky and even close together in binoculars.

Friday: When you look up into the night sky and see all of those stars, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya punk? You would if you looked at the lucky stars in the constellation Aquarius. The two brightest stars are called Sadalmelik, the lucky stars of the king, and Sadalsuud, the luckiest of the lucky. Another star in the constellation is called Sadachbia meaning lucky stars of the tents. Sadalmelik is four fists above the south horizon at 11 p.m. Sadachbia is to the lower left of Sadalmelik. Sadalsuud is three and a half fist above due south at this time.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Saturday: Geometry review: part 2. School starts this week so it is time to continue our little geometry review from last week. Did you forget last week’s lesson? Well, go to the litter box, dig out last Saturday’s paper and review it. Then go outside at 9 p.m. with notebook in hand. Ready? A square is a quadrilateral with four sides of equal length and four right angle corners. A good example in the sky is the Great Square, an asterism (group of stars) consisting of three stars from the constellation Pegasus and one star from the constellation Andromeda. At 9 p.m., the bottom of the Great Square is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due east.

Sunday: There is a lot to see at the Kittitas County Fair. But there is not a lot to see in the sky when you are at the fair because the fair lights, which are fairly bright, obscure most celestial objects. Jupiter is one of the few objects bright enough to be seen. As you are leaving the fair at 10 p.m., look for Jupiter about two fists above the east-southeast horizon. Luckily Galileo didn’t do his observing at the Kittitas County Fair because he would not have been able to see Jupiter’s moons. So what, you say? Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter provided strong evidence that objects other than the Earth could have satellites providing strong support for a Sun-centered solar system. For more information about Jupiter or observing Jupiter, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/observe_sep.htm

Monday: Labor Day was the brainchild of labor unions and is dedicated to American workers. The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882. The Greek mythical hero Hercules probably wished there was a Labor Day to commemorate his work. As punishment for killing his family while he was temporarily insane, he had to perform twelve nearly impossible tasks such as killing monsters or stealing things from deities. Humm. Maybe we shouldn’t commemorate his labors. But we can enjoy his constellation. The keystone asterism representing the body of Hercules is six fists above the west horizon at 10 p.m. For more information about the Labors of Hercules, go to http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/labors.html.

Tuesday: The calendar says summer is nearing an end. School starting tomorrow says summer is nearing an end. The summer triangle in the sky begs to differ as it is still high in the sky. Vega, the brightest star in the triangle, is a little bit west of straight overhead at sunset. Deneb is a little bit east of straight overhead and Altair is five fists above the south horizon.

Wednesday: Venus is less than a half a fist above the west-southwest horizon at 8 p.m. Mars is a half a fist to the upper right of Venus and the star Spica is a half a fist due right of Venus.

Thursday: Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus, is one fist above the south-southeast horizon at 11 pm. It is the southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg.

Friday: The bright star Capella is a half a fist above the north-northwest horizon at 9 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Saturday: School starts next week so it is time for a little geometry review. Go outside at 10 p.m. tonight with notebook in hand. Ready? A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three line segments as sides. A good example is the summer triangle made up of the bright stars Vega, Deneb and Altair. Vega, the brightest star in the triangle is a little bit west of straight overhead. Deneb is a little bit east of straight overhead and Altair is five fists held upright and at arm’s length above the south horizon.

Sunday: Ah, the beauty of classification. A large three-sided figure such as the Summer Triangle is a triangle. Hence the name “Summer Triangle” and not “Summer Sandwich”. Although those little triangle-shaped sandwiches are quite tasty. Where was I? Oh yes, classification. Small three-sided figures are also called triangles. This week, the planets Mars & Venus and the bright star Spica make a tiny triangle low in the western sky right after sunset. At 8:30 tonight, Venus is at the bottom of the triangle, less than half a fist above the west-southwest horizon. Spica is a finger width to the upper left of Venus and Mars is about two finger widths to the upper right of Venus.

Monday: When Galileo looked at Venus nearly 400 years ago, he discovered that Venus goes through phases from new to quarter to full just like our moon does. Thanks to this and Galileo’s many other observations of moons and planets in our Solar System, support for an Earth-centered universe was greatly diminished. To commemorate these findings, NASA has made planets, dwarf planets, and moons this month’s “Hot Topic” for the International Year of Astronomy. For more information, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_sep.htm.

Tuesday: “I’m a little teapot, short and stout. The galactic center, I pour it out.” (I’m a Little Teapot, astronomy version, 2010.) Despite its great size and importance, the center of our Milky Way galaxy and its giant black hole remains hidden to the naked eye behind thick clouds of gas and dust. By plotting the orbits if stars near the middle of the galaxy, astronomers have determined that the black hole’s mass is equal to about 4.5 million Suns. While you can see the actual galactic center, you can gaze in the direction of the center by looking to the right of the teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius. This point is about one fist above the south-southwest horizon at 9 p.m.

Wednesday: This morning’s last quarter moon is in the constellation Taurus the bull. While the quarter moon phases look smaller than the full moon at a glance, all phases are the same size. Recently, astronomers discovered that the moon has not always been the same size. It contracted about 0.2 km in diameter, out of a total diameter of 3,470 km, as it cooled over three billion years ago.

Thursday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.

Friday: The Ellensburg Rodeo is a “Top-25” rodeo. What does it take to be a “Top-25” star? There are many ways to rank stars. The most obvious way for a casual observer to rank stars is by apparent brightness. The apparent brightness is the brightness of a star as seen from Earth, regardless of its distance from the Earth. Shaula (pronounced Show’-la) is the 25th brightest star in the nighttime sky as seen from Earth. It represents the stinger of Scorpius the scorpion. In fact, Shaula means stinger in Arabic. Shaula has a visual brightness rating of 1.62. Sirius, the brightest star has a visual brightness rating of -1.46. (Smaller numbers mean brighter objects.) The dimmest objects that can be seen with the naked eye have a visual brightness rating of about 6. There are approximately 6,000 stars with a lower visual brightness rating than 6 meaning there are 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye. Shaula is a blue sub-giant star that radiates 35,000 times more energy than the Sun. It is 700 light years away making it one of the most distant bright stars. Shaula is a challenge to find because it never gets more than a half a fist above the horizon. Look for it tonight about a half a fist above the south horizon, a little bit west of due south, at 8:30.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

I just read an article called “It’s Alive” from the June 2010 issue of Discover Magazine. The author postulates that, according to some scientists, the case for life on Mars has already been settled. In 1976, the probe Viking I gathered samples of Martian dirt and tested for life. In one test, engineer Gilbert Levin put nutrients spiked with radioactive material in the dirt. If there were bacteria in the dirt, they would ingest the nutrients and exhale trace radioactive material. The first trial detected radioactivity. As a check, Levin did a second trial in which the dirt was superheated to kill off any bacteria before adding the radioactive nutrients. This trial did not detect any radioactive respiration. Since this was the only Viking test to support life on Mars, scientists assumed that some nonbiological reaction led to Levin’s results. However, in 1976, the assumption was that organic material is rare in the galaxy. Since then, astronomers have discovered organic material on Saturn’s moon Titan, on comets and meterorites, even in interstellar clouds 26,000 light years from Earth. After years of being overlooked, maybe someday Gilbert Levin will be proven right about life on Mars just like Alfred Wegener was proven right about continental drift after many decades. Lesson to all of us: stick by your conclusions if they are supported by evidence.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Saturday: Sometimes you find a quarter on the ground. Maybe you find a dollar in the lining of your jacket. But how often do you find a galaxy in a well-known part of the sky? The Hubble Space Telescope discovered a face-on spiral galaxy in the Coma Cluster of galaxies about 320 million light years away. This galaxy, called NGC 4911, contains regions of gas and dust as well as glowing newborn star clusters. The Coma Star cluster is in the constellation Coma Berenices, found two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9 p.m. For more information about this newly discovered galaxy, plus a zoomable image, go to http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/24/.

Sunday: Venus is a half a fist above the west-southwest horizon at 8:45 p.m. Even though it is so low in the sky, it is highly reflective so you should easily be able to find it by the sunlight bouncing off if it. Use bright Venus to find its dimmer neighbors in the sky. Mars is about a finger’s width to the upper right of Venus. Saturn is about a fist and a half to the right of Venus.

Monday: You may have trouble holding in your water at midnight. But not the Big Dipper. The cup of the Big Dipper is facing upward in a water-holding orientation about two fists above the north horizon at midnight.

Tuesday: When the Moon is full, it is difficult to see dim objects in the sky because of the sky glow. But why struggle to find dim objects when there is so much to see on the big, bright object in front of you? The lunar crater called Tycho is best seen during a full Moon. Tycho was formed about 109 million years ago when an asteroid struck the Moon, leaving a crater over 50 miles in diameter and ejected dust trails that radiate out hundreds of miles in all directions. For more lunar highlights, go to
http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/ObserveMoon.pdf, a resource of the Night Sky Network.

Wednesday: Vega, the third brightest star visible from Ellensburg and the entire northern section of the United States, is nearly straight overhead at 9 p.m.

Thursday: The Sun is finally moving out of it period of having few or no sunspots. But while the Sun was inactive, astronomers were studying sunspots on other stars such as Corot-2a, a star that is similar to the Sun but much younger. Astronomers noticed that the brightness drop of Corot-2a was slightly different every time its planet Corot-2b passed in front of it. They thought it should be the same since the same planet was passing in front of it. So, the astronomers concluded the variation in brightness was due to sunspots on Corot-2a. For more information about this, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/49444867.html.

Friday: Jupiter is two fists above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. It is about a fist to the right of the Moon.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Today: It’s a moonless August morning. The first remnant of dawn has not appeared yet. Suddenly, you notice a large softly radiant pyramid of light in the east sky. The base of this ghostly triangle is along the east horizon and the peak stretches two or three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the horizon about two hours before sunrise. Don’t be scared. It’s not really a ghost. It is an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon. You need a clear dark sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light. At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way. This is one of the best times of year to see the zodiacal light in the morning.

Sunday: Mars, Venus, and Saturn are close together low in the western sky all week. Venus is by far the brightest of the three planets. It is a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon, a little bit south of west, at 9 p.m. Mars is about a finger’s width to the upper left of Venus and Saturn is less than a fist to the right of Venus.

Monday: It’s time to sing along with a holiday classic: “Oh, the weather on the Sun is frightful. But the aurora is so delightful. Well, the Sun is active and hot. Let it spot, let it spot, let it spot.” The Sun seems to finally be waking up from its sunspot slumber. On August 1st, the sunspot region 1092 triggered a huge coronal mass ejection (CME) that shot out from the Sun at a speed of more than 600 miles per second. A CME is plasma consisting mainly of electrons and protons. When these charged particles interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, they produce the colorful phenomenon known as the aurora. Basically, increased solar activity means a more active Sun which produce more CME which leads to increased aurorae.

Tuesday: Antares is about a finger’s width to the lower right of the Moon at 9 p.m.

Wednesday: Mars is still about a finger’s width from Venus and a half a fist above the west horizon at 9 p.m. But notice that they have both moved eastward away from Saturn with Venus having moved a little more.

Thursday: This evening, Venus is as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get this orbital cycle. What is this "farthest away" point is known as the planet’s greatest eastern elongation. As you have noted all week, Venus is a half a fist above the west horizon at 9 p.m. Over the next two months, Venus will move toward the Sun in the sky. By the end of September, it will be lost in the glare of evening twilight.

Friday: Fomalhaut, the bright star in the Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fishes, is about one fist above the southeast horizon at midnight. It is the southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg and other locations near 47 degrees north latitude.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Perseid meteor shower peaks this week. Expect nearly moonless skies and increased meteor activity ever late night and early morning this week.

Saturday: If the 1970s group The Knack were bigger fans of astronomy, they may have sang: “Oo, my little pretty one, pretty one. When you gonna give me some time, Corona?” The constellation Corona Borealis is a pretty one. Depending on what source you read, the myth associated with the constellation can be happy or sad. Bacchus, Roman god of wine, presented his bride, Ariadne, with a golden crown set with seven diamonds. Some sources say Bacchus tossed the crown in the air out of joy when he married Ariadne. Other sources say he threw the crown into the sky after Ariadne died because it reminded him of her. In either case, his friends among the gods thought the crown was beautiful and hung it in the sky to show it off. You can see if you agree with the Roman gods by looking for Corona Borealis tonight. Seven stars represent the seven diamonds. Look about five and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon or two fists above the bright star Arcturus at 11 p.m. The seven stars form a bowl.

Sunday: Venus, Saturn, and Mars make a little triangle low in the western sky at nightfall all week. They are less than one fist above the west horizon at 9:30 tonight. In order of increasing brightness and apparent size are Venus, Saturn, and Mars. Mars and Venus will move to the left throughout the week providing evidence that they are much closer to the Earth than the nighttime stars.

Monday: Many big city dwellers never see the milky white, nearly continuous band of stars known as the Milky Way. As cities grow and add more lights, it has become harder to see the bulk of the Milky Way galaxy, our home in the universe. But, there are two easy ways to see the Milky Way. The first way is to look in the mirror. You are part of the Milky Way. The second way is to look from due north through the point straight overhead (called the zenith) to due south from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. for the next two weeks. This is the time of year when the Milky Way is highest in the sky and away from the city lights on the horizon.

Tuesday: As a public service, I am going to review iPhone etiquette. Talking on your iPhone in a crowded room: bad. Checking for public astronomy events on your iPhone: good. Here’s how to be good. Go to the App Store and download the free app called Go StarGaze. This app allows users to search for public astronomy events in their area that are being put on by a Night Sky Network astronomy club such as the CWU Astronomy Club.

Wednesday: Jupiter is one fist above the east horizon at 11 p.m.

Thursday: The Perseid meteor shower peaks late tonight and early tomorrow morning. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about two and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 11 p.m. By 4 a.m., the peak time, this point is about seven fists above the northeast horizon. If you fall asleep or forget to set your alarm, you will be able to observe this shower from midnight to dawn for a few days before and after tonight in about the same location in the sky. The Perseid shower is one of the longest lasting showers. You may be able to see up to 60 meteors per hour in the late night and early morning hours all week thanks to the nearly moonless sky at these times. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell off of Comet Swift-Tuttle. They are traveling about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more tips about meteor watching, go to www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/3304061.html.

Friday: Deneb is about seven fists above the east horizon at 10 p.m. When you look at Deneb, you are seeing light that left Deneb about 1,800 years ago.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Saturday: Mars and Saturn are neighbors in the sky all week. They are one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m. Saturn is on top, the brighter of the two. They will easily fit into the field of view of typical binoculars. The much brighter Venus is a fist to the lower right of Mars and Saturn.

Sunday: In Scotland, August 1 was known as Lammas, the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. You can remember this by looking at Spica, named for the Latin word for “ear of wheat”, one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwest horizon at 9:30 p.m. It is also called a cross-quarter day, a day approximately half way between an equinox and a solstice.

Monday: When you think of the Solar System, the main objects that come to mind are the planets and the Sun. But much of the evidence of how the Solar System formed comes from meteors, comets, and asteroids. Scientists have been analyzing the small chunks of rocks and ice that fall to Earth. More recently, astronomers have been studying the rocks and ice in outer space with telescopes and space probes. For example, in July, 2005, the NASA mission Deep Impact smashed into a comet to study its structure. For more information about this rather cold “Hot Topic”, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_aug.htm.

Tuesday: What are some of the signs of August? 1. Hot weather. 2. Back to school sales. 3. A chain email saying Mars will look as big as a full moon this month. The first two are true. The third one never was and never will be. In August of 2003, Mars was as close to Earth as it had been in all of written history. With the right telescope magnification, it could look as large as the moon without magnification. But, even then, Mars did not appear even as large as Jupiter always does. This year, Mars is about half its maximum apparent size. Compare it with Saturn in a small telescope. Mars and Saturn are still one above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m. Mars apparent diameter is much less than Saturn’s.

Wednesday: Had the script been written a little differently for a well known Robin Williams movie, we may have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the hunter”. Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But, it makes its first appearance in the summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s body, represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 4:30 a.m., well before the Sun. By 5 a.m., Orion’s belt is about one fist above the east-southeast horizon.

Thursday: Jupiter is a fist above the east-southeast horizon at 11:30 p.m.

Friday: Need a caffeine pick-me-up? Make it a double. Need an astronomy pick-me-up? Make it a double-double. Find Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight. Less than half a fist to the east (or left if you are facing south) of the bright bluish star Vega is the “star” Epsilon Lyra. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through binoculars, it looks like two stars. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through a large enough telescope, you will notice that each star in the pair is itself a pair of stars. Each star in the double is double. Hence, Epsilon Lyra is known as the double-double. The stars in each pair orbit a point approximately in the center of each respective pair. The pairs themselves orbit a point between the two pairs.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Saturday: The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks for the next few nights and early mornings with the greatest concentration of meteors being visible Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 1 am tomorrow morning. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. Unfortunately, the nearly full moon and waning gibbous moon will be out most of the night and obscure the dimmer meteors. As you Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Sunday: Tonight’s full moon is in the constellation Capricornus the sea goat.

Monday: We read a lot about how kids nowadays are heavier than they used to be. You don’t read that about stars… until now. Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory just discovered the most massive stars in the universe using their Very Large Telescope (yes, that’s its real name). These two stars are about 300 times more massive than the Sun or twice as massive as the largest known stars. In addition to being very massive, they are several million times brighter than our Sun. Their brightness compared to the Sun is the same as the Sun’s brightness compared to the full moon. Neither of these stars is visible from Ellensburg. For more information, go to http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/news/view/67492/.

Tuesday: Speaking of meteor showers, the Perseid meteor shower is NASA’s “Go Observe” object for August. The Perseid meteor shower is typically the most easily visible shower of the year for Northern Hemisphere observers. This year, moonlight will interfere with the dimmer meteors during the peak evenings of August 12 and 13. Luckily, Perseid meteors are visible from about the last week in July until the last week in August so you can start watching the Perseid meteor shower this week. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about two fists above the northeast horizon at 11 p.m. tonight. For more information, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/observe_aug.htm.

Wednesday: Venus is a little less than a fist above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m. Mars and Saturn are a fist to the upper left of Venus. Saturn is the upper and the brighter of the two.

Thursday: Say "Cheese". 159 years ago this month, Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, became the first star ever photographed. The photograph was done at the Harvard Observatory using the daguerreotype process. Vega is the third brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg behind Sirius and Arcturus. Vega is nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight.

Friday: Jupiter is a little less than a fist above the east horizon at 11:30 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Saturday: Being in a coma is a bad thing. Looking at the Coma Star Cluster is a good thing. The Coma Star Cluster is an open cluster of about 50 stars that takes up more space in the sky than 10 full Moons. It looks like a fuzzy patch with the naked eye. Binoculars reveal dozens of sparkling stars. A telescope actually diminishes from the spectacle because the cluster is so big and the telescope’s field of view is so small. The Coma Star Cluster is in the faint constellation Coma Berenices (ba-ron-ice’-ez) or Queen Berenice’s hair. Queen Berenice of Egypt cut off her beautiful hair as a sacrifice to the gods for the safe return of her husband Ptolemy III from battle. The Coma Star Cluster is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 10:30 p.m.

Sunday: There is a small herd of planets moving along the ecliptic low in the western sky tonight. The what? You know, the west. The direction where the Sun sets. Oh wait. You know that word. The word “ecliptic” is the new word for you. The ecliptic is the apparent path that the Sun takes through the background stars. Since the planets orbit the Sun, they can also be found along the ecliptic. Look at 10 p.m. Venus is a half a fist above the west horizon, a little bit north of west. Mars is a fist above the west horizon, a little bit south of west. Finally, Saturn is a fist and a half above the west-southwest horizon.

Monday: Take a two and a half hour walk. Too long, you say? Forty-one years ago tomorrow, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever walk by humans on another world. They spend two and a half hours setting up scientific instruments and collecting rocks for study back on Earth. Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the spacecraft the three astronauts would use to return to Earth.

Tuesday: What are you going to do tonight? Certainly not watch the junk on TV. Clean the garage? Yeah, like that’s going to happen. No, you want to go to the astronomy celebration at Lind Hall on the Central Washington University campus from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. The evening starts in Lind Hall, room 215 with a brief astronomy lecture. At 9:30, we’ll start observing a variety of celestial objects. Dress warm and be ready to be edutained.

Wednesday: If you want to show your loved ones a celestial sign that they should hang up their clothes, show them Brocchi's Cluster, commonly known as the Coat Hanger cluster because of its resemblance to an upside down coat hanger. The cluster is six fists above the southeast horizon at 10:30 p.m., midway between Altair and Vega, the two brightest stars in the Summer Triangle. You'll need binoculars to make out the shape. First find Altair four fists above the southeast horizon. Slowly move your binoculars up toward Vega. You will run into the coat hanger along the way. And while you are at it, put away your shoes.

Thursday: Jupiter is about a half a fist above the east horizon at midnight.

Friday: Do you wish it was easy to find due north? After all, a compass points to magnetic north which is a few degrees off of true geographic north. Well, tonight’s your night. Capella, the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer, is due north at exactly 10:14 p.m. It looks like a bright light on a pole on the north ridge because is only about one degree above the horizon.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Saturday: The little king, also known as the bright star Regulus, is feeling a hunka hunka burnin’ love for the bright planet Venus. Less than a pinky width held at arm’s length separates them tonight. They are one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 10 p.m. They will love each other tender for the entire week as they remain close together in the evening sky.

Sunday: After watching the movie “South Pacific” and honoring its well-known song by “washing that man right out of your hair”, go to the real South Pacific Ocean to view a total solar eclipse. This morning, the residents of the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Easter Island, as well as small sections of southern Chile and Argentina will see the Moon completely cover the Sun for a total solar eclipse. During a total solar eclipse, the new Moon is directly between the Earth and Sun. For people watching from the path of totality, the Sun disappears and it is possible to see the nighttime stars. The next eclipse visible in Ellensburg, as well as the entire United States, is a total lunar eclipse on the night of December 20 and 21.

Monday: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black. Draco’s mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin) helped develop a plan to trap Harry at the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation Draco the dragon is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure nearly straight overhead at 11 p.m.

Tuesday: Saturn is one and a half fists above the west-southwest horizon at 10 p.m.

Wednesday: The Andromeda galaxy, the most distant object visible with the naked eye from a dark site, has moved into the evening sky. To locate the Andromeda Galaxy, first find the Great Square of Pegasus. At 11:00 p.m., the left hand corner of the square is about two fists above the east-northeast horizon. Less than two fists to the left and down a little bit is another star the same brightness as the star at the corner of the square. From that star, hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one fourth as bright. Less than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy oval patch of light known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars. It consists of about 400 billion stars and is 2.2 million light years away.

Thursday: Mars is less than a half a fist to the upper right of the Moon at 10 p.m.

Friday: Jupiter is a little less than a half a fist above due east at midnight tonight. Just before dawn tomorrow morning, it will be four fists above the south-southeast horizon.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.